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Excavations at Schimatari and Dilisi in

A. C. B. Brown

The Annual of the British School at Athens / Volume 12 / November 1906, pp 93 - 100 DOI: 10.1017/S0068245400008005, Published online: 18 October 2013

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0068245400008005

How to cite this article: A. C. B. Brown (1906). Excavations at Schimatari and Dilisi in Boeotia. The Annual of the British School at Athens, 12, pp 93-100 doi:10.1017/S0068245400008005

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Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/ATH, IP address: 131.173.48.20 on 19 Apr 2015 EXCAVATIONS AT SCHIMATARI AND DILISI IN BOEOTIA.

THESE excavations arose out of the discovery by Professor Burrows, of an inscription built into the wall of the church of H. Dimitrios near Schimatari Station. This inscription, which was published by him in the last number of the Annual,1 was the base of his provisional identification of this site with that of the Temple of Apollo at Delium. Excavation was rendered possible by a grant from the Craven Committee at Oxford and proved that the identification was not supported by archaeological evidence. The excavation of other sites in the more immediate neighbourhood of Dilisi, a village on the coast which has generally been considered to occupy the position of the ancient Delium, led also to purely negative results, but as the sites excavated at Dilisi included all the places at which ancient remains are known to have existed, and most of the places which might naturally have been chosen as temple-sites, the* excavations have at least cleared the ground for future investigators.

(i) THE CHURCH OF H. DIMITRIOS.

The site of this church and the inscription which it contains have been fully described by Professor Burrows. A thorough excavation of the site led to the discovery of no Hellenic remains, with the exception of one or two vase-fragments which evidently came from a rifled tomb ; on the other hand the site was prolific of Byzantine walls and Christian skeletons. The wall of the ' mandra,' which at first seemed likely to be of Hellenic 1 B.S.A. xi. pp. 153—172. 94 A. C. B. BROWN date, proved on excavation to contain tiles in its lower courses, while one of its largest blocks was found to rest upon a piece of marble on which a Cross had been carefully carved. The architectural fragments which the church itself contained were all of Christian date.

(2) THE HILL OF H. ELIAS. The hill of H. Elias stands about 2 kilometres from the church of H. Dimitrios, to the right of the direct road to Dilisi ; it reaches a much greater height than the range of hills on which H. Dimitrios is situated, and of course is much nearer the sea. At the top of it are the rough stone

FIG. 1.—PLAN OF A MYCENAEAN HOUSE. walls, containing in a niche a lantern surrounded by pine branches, which do duty for the shrine of H. Paraskeve. A short distance to the north- west of this, were some worked blocks of stone which turned out to be the foundations of a small Mycenaean house of the usual mainland Mycenaean EXCAVATIONS IN BOEOTIA. 95

(Ialysos, Tell el Amarna) period. This building measures 87 m. by 6 m., the longer walls being on the north-east and south-west (Fig. 1). The walls are '50 m. in thickness, though for a length of 2*5 m. along the south- east wall the thickness increases to 1*4 m. The walls go down to a depth of from "30 to -50 m. At the south corner there is a built threshold, while at the east corner there is a gap of 1*3 m. in the south-east wall; outside the south-west wall, at a distance of from r8o to 270 m. from it, runs another wall for a distance of 5*50 m.; from the north-west wall a cross-wall, "6o m. in thickness, extends inwards for a distance of 1*50 m. In the centre of the building there is a stone block, presumably the base of a pillar; between this and the south-east wall there is a rough pavement. The interior of the building was thickly strewn with fragments of Mycenaean pottery. From here too, came a rough block of poros stone, •45 by '30 by -2i m. deep, with an oval hollow -io m. deep on the top face ; a round limestone basin with lug handles set opposite one another on the lip, greatest diameter '25 m. and height '09 m.; a large bowl of coarse material and several pieces of obsidian were picked up on the site. A short distance to the east of this building and on the east slope of the hill, two rock-cut tombs were found ; one of these measured '66 by "40 m., with a depth of "28 m., and the top of the tomb was "35 m. below the surface of the ground. It contained two cups, one measuring '078 m. in height and •095 in diameter at the top, the other -043 in height and '055 in diameter; there were also an iron nail, two amber beads, two pieces of a spiral ornament worn in the hair and the whorl of a spindle. The other tomb contained a number of vase fragments.

(3) DlLISi.

A.—REMAINS. The most interesting of the architectural fragments visible in the village of Dilisi is a large drum of a column of hard poros stone (diam. •94, height '64), which dates probably from the beginning of the fifth century or even earlier (Fig. 2). As to its provenance, local tradition asserts that it was found at Paleo-Chorio (see below), but as excavations on that site yielded no trace of similar remains, it seems possible that it may have been brought over from Eretria; at present it stands on 96 A. C. B. BROWN the shore close to the house of Dimitriou. In the garden of the same house is a fragment of a Roman architrave.

FIG. 2.—DRUM OF POROS COLUMN.

In a cornfield on the Hill of Agrielaea (see below) a stone seat was disinterred from a deep pit two or three metres from the crest of

FIG. 3.—STONE SEAT. the hill (Fig. 3). It measured 1-27 m. in length, -62 in total height, -56 in breadth, and the thickness of the seat was -13. There are no traces EXCAVATIONS IN BOEOTIA. 97 of supports underneath. The top of the seat has suffered from the weather. On the shore of Dilisi there are considerable traces of an ancient mole, which is described below in connexion with the excavation of the site.

B.—SITES.

(a) The Mole. The mole at present in use at Dilisi is of modern date. It was constructed by the English company which began the construction of a railway from Athens to (a task which has recently been accom- plished by a French company), and found it convenient to ship to Dilisi the materials necessary for the construction of the portion of this line which passes through the district. Local tradition reports that many stones from the old mole were removed to form the new one ; still, a few metres east of the modern mole, traces of its predecessor remain. These are two parallel lines of stone blocks, which, if produced, would enter the sea at an angle of about 45° with the line of the modern mole. It looks as if the coastline had changed considerably since ancient times, the change being doubtless due to the influence of earthquakes, to which this region is especially subject. The stones average "82 square, and the total width of the structure is 4 metres, the length which now remains being 10 ; the distance between each stone is 1*5. Excavation showed that the stones measured '40 in depth, that they rested upon a continuous base of two courses of stone slabs, each -40 in depth, and that the interval between the lines of stones was filled with cement composed of' Santorin earth' {%i)piaitt) ryfj). A few fragments of Hellenic pottery were discovered, and a broken terracotta model of a seat.

(b) The Hill Agrielaea. This hill, which is 30 or 40 metres in height, lies three or four hundred metres eastward of the village ; it slopes straight up from the sea, and is the place which most obviously suggests itself to a student of the literary authorities, as the site of the Temple of Delium. This was the place at which the stone seat, above described, was found. Another stone seat exactly similar was unearthed in a tomb constructed of large blocks of H 98 A. C. B. BROWN stone, together with a number of coarse lekythi and some skeletons ; close to this tomb were found a number of lamps, all clearly of late date, and one of them ornamented with a cross.

(c) The Hill Karaouli. This lies a short distance to the left of the path from Schimatari to Dilisi, at a distance of about a kilometre from Dilisi; it is a hill about ioo m. in height, with a flat top somewhat scantily covered by pine trees ; its name, which means ' place of ambush,' is said to have been derived from an episode in the War of Independence. Trenches at the top having yielded nothing, work was begun on the foundations on the south-west slope of the hill, which proved to be of late date.

(d) The West Field. This site lies in a ploughed field about 120 m. west of the house of Dimitriou, close to the sea, and about 10 m. above sea-level. Here the apse of a small church was discovered, and near it a few fragments of glass and a piece of fresco, apparently representing a female saint. On this site, just below the surface, was found a small piece of poros stone inscribed with the letters HO A. ; the height of the fetters is '025 m. and there is a good edge only at the bottom; the space before the first of these letters being slightly greater than those between the others, it seems likely that the letters formed the beginning of a word. The large stones in the apse- wall were taken out, but showed no inscriptions.

(e) TlXdica TOV AiXiai. This hill lies about 600 m. west of the West Field (i.e. about 720 m. west of Dilisi), and overlooks from a height of about 25 m. the bay between Diiisi and Dramesi; it faces straight across to Chalcis and the expression XaXtftSo? Karevavriov which Herodotus (vi. 118) applies to the site of Delium, is applicable to this site. Some 10 metres from the shore, and running parallel to it, is a natural formation of rock which presents the appearance of a mole. The site contains a well of late date ; nothing was found there. EXCAVATIONS IN BOEOTIA. 99

(f) Palaeo-Pegadi. An ancient well, south of Dilisi and about half a kilometre from the sea. The whole neighbourhood of the site has its surface strewn with pottery and tiles, coarse, but in some cases of Hellenic date. A wall was found 10 m. south-east of the well, from -35 to '45 in depth ; below it soil mixed with tiles ; the wall was formed of rough unworked limestone ; pieces of pottery were found under it, but not in it. It seems probable that the site was used at one time as a pottery manufactory, and that the wall formed part of a furnace. (g) Palaeo-Chorio. About half a kilometre south of Dilisi, the place) where the large drum of a column is said to have been found. The site is marked by a large block of coarse local limestone cut into two steps. There are walls of late date containing tiles, but nothing Hellenic. A vase of coarse material was found in a Roman tomb.

(h) Hill above Church of H. Paraskeve, Dilisi. This hill, as occupying a commanding position near the shore and showing a few fragments of Hellenic tiles, seemed a possible site for the Temple. Absolutely nothing was found there.

(i) The Middle Field. About 100 metres south of the house of Dimitriou at Dilisi, walls were unearthed with mortar and tiles; underneath them ran a line of large blocks of stone, under which sand and salt water were reached ; this line of stones was probably laid to ensure a sound foundation for the building. The length of the wall and underlying row of blocks was at least 12 m. (it was not considered worth while to excavate the south end of the building) and its breadth 475m. In one place where the late wall has been destroyed, there were two of these stone blocks one above the other, with a layer of white soft material between them, probably a slab of poros stone, which has been dissolved by the action of sea-water. The blocks were probably re-used, for a rough edge was found lying above a smooth one, which had doubtless been at one time above ground, and intended for show; the smooth and the rough parts belong to the same stone, which must therefore have been inverted. It is remarkable that the inner edge of the later wall H 2 ioo EXCAVATIONS IN BOEOTIA. runs along the line of the outer edge of the top line of blocks. On this site were found a fragmentary terracotta representing a woman's head with earrings (height, '047), some small fragments of Hellenic pottery, a vase of coarse material probably of post-Hellenic date, and large quantities of late tiles and pottery. The lower courses of the building excavated are possibly of Hellenic date, but the building cannot have been a temple.

(j) The Hill Louisa. A hill about 150 m. in height and about 2 km. south of Dilisi. An inscription was reported to exist here, but was not visible. At the top of the hill are a few small blocks of local limestone, now much weathered, but perhaps once worked. On the south slope of the hill is a piece of worked stone ('53 by "38 by "20), coarse poros, broken at both ends. No foundations of any kind were found here. My thanks are due to the Directors and Manager of the Athens- Larissa Railway Company for their courtesy in permitting me to live at their station at Schimatari, and to M. Dimitriou for permission to occupy his house and dig on his estate at Dilisi. Also to Mr. J. M. Dawkins for his photographs of the seat and column drum at Dilisi. A. C. B. BROWN.